LANCASTER COUNTY. 257 



till reason was restored, and '' a second sober thought y^ 

 restrained their threats. Having spent eight months 

 among them, and acquu-ed the principal part of the 

 Mohawk language, he returned to the German 

 colony, where, as interpreter, he acquired a competent 

 knowledge of the language^, in a very short time. 



Owing to a defect in the titles to their lands which 

 involved them in difficulties, this German colony was 

 dispersed; some remained at Schoharie, among these 

 was Weiser, the interpreter, others left, in search of a 

 new home ; these wended their course in a south-wes- 

 terly direction till they struck Susquehanna, where 

 they made canoes, freighted these with their families and 

 goods ; floated down the river to the mouth of Swatara 

 creek, thence they worked their way up till they reached 

 a fertile spot in Tulpehocken, where they sej,tled amidst 

 the Indians, in 1723. 



Weiser, as stated, remained at Schoharie, till 1729, 

 when he, his wife and four children left, and followed 

 his relations and friends to Tulpehocken, where they 

 were all cordially received. Here he took up a tract 

 of land within a few miles of the site of Wommelsdorf. 



He, as occasion demanded it, acted as interpreter 

 between the Indians and the German settlers. Though 

 he had determined to spend his remaining days in 

 private, his talents soon attracted the attention of the 

 Government, and his services, as interpreter, were re- 

 quired, by the Hon. Patrick Gordon, Lieut. Governor 

 of Pennsylvania, as early as 1631; for that purpose, 

 Weiser accompanied Shekellany and Cehachquey, In- 

 dians, who had returned from the Six Nations, to Phila- 

 delphia.* He was called on repeatedly to act as 



*Col. Rec.452. 



22* 



